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RUSH: Terry in Hewitt, Texas. Great to have you. Hi.

CALLER: Hi. Hi, Rush.

RUSH: How you doing?

CALLER: I’m fine.

RUSH: Good.

CALLER: But I’m a little confused. I’ve been listening to you warn us for years about the Democrats, you say, “when you can’t win in the arena of ideas you resort to personal attacks,” and that’s what Donald Trump does all the time. If you’re a woman, you become a bimbo and a pig, And if you’re a man, then you’ve been on your knees begging him for money. I just wondered, do you think for a minute that he wouldn’t use the IRS, the EPA, and the FBI to go after his enemies? He’s still got a vendetta against Megyn Kelly, and now he’s starting on Heidi Cruz.

RUSH: Yeah, isn’t it amazing how he gets away with this stuff? Why do you think that is, Terry? I was at this dinner that I’ve been describing last night with some friends of mine that I haven’t seen in a while. We’re talking about all of this stuff, how he gets away with it, why do his supporters not abandon him, why does the media not step forward and offer blanket condemnation and suggest he’s unfit for American politics. Why does his popularity not suffer. I mean, can you help me understand any of this?

CALLER: No. No. I don’t understand it.

RUSH: Well, there has to be a reason.


CALLER: Well, there has to be a reason, but we don’t need another know-it-all with a king complex in the White House. When asked who he consults on foreign policy, he said himself.

RUSH: Yeah?

CALLER: Just like Obama, he always thinks he’s the smartest man in the room.

RUSH: Well, compared to Obama, he probably is.

CALLER: Well, probably so. But he’s not.

RUSH: It’s interesting you bring that up. I have a story here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, and it’s from TheHill.com. It’s right on the money, what I have been talking about, focused for the last two weeks. The headline here: “Vocal Trump Critics in GOP Open to Supporting Clinton.” And this is about people in the Washington establishment who are having vapors, they’re beside themselves when they find out who Trump’s foreign policy team is. He’s named some people, and these people at the establishment, they are aghast. They can’t believe that Trump has chosen the people he’s chosen, because they’re not in the club, and some of ’em are even conspiracy believers. And they’re just beside themselves, and they’re saying, “If this doesn’t change, we’re voting for Hillary.”

CALLER: If they say they’re voting for Hillary, then they are insane.

RUSH: Well, yes. But that’s my point. But these are members of the Republican establishment. I don’t have time to go through the details of the story. I’m gonna do it later. I don’t want to take away from your call. But wait ’til you hear it. It’s classic. “I don’t know any of these people. They’re not members of the club. How can he choose these people?” It’s classic. It’s exactly what I told you the reaction was gonna be from the, quote, unquote, establishment to Trump. But, look, we’re getting a little bit off the path of your question. I’m like you, I’m asking. Look, you say I’m not condemning. All kinds of people are.

CALLER: But why aren’t you, Rush? I’ve listened to you for years —

RUSH: I don’t think it needs to be. It speaks for itself. There’s a lot of people that don’t understand liberalism, Terry, there are a lot of people that I think, by definition, still need to be informed and educated that it isn’t the soft, loving, compassionate stuff that it’s portrayed to be. Trump speaks for himself. Who Trump is and what he’s doing is not a mystery to anybody. It’s the exact opposite of a mystery. It’s in your face.

CALLER: But right now we have a candidate with all the qualities that you said for years that you wanted, and he’s a real conservative, and you’ve said real conservatives can win. But I hear you every day just talking about both sides, Trump and Ted Cruz, like you’re a disinterested observer.

RUSH: No. not correct. I talk about the news here. I don’t do topics, and I don’t do causes. Yesterday’s entire first two hours was about Ted Cruz. It was in total support. It was defining what Cruz was doing. It was defending him.

CALLER: I know. I know. I never have heard you say anything bad about Ted Cruz. I know —

RUSH: Okay.

CALLER: — that you have praised him to the hilt. Yes.

RUSH: He was in the news. He earned coverage. I don’t do causes, and I don’t do topics here. I mean, if Trump —

CALLER: You warn us every day about the Democrats and Hillary and Bernie. Why aren’t you warning us — why aren’t you warning people —

RUSH: Because I’m not voting for Hillary. If Trump’s the nominee I’m voting for him. I’m gonna vote for anybody but Hillary Clinton. I’m not voting for her no matter what. Daffy Duck could be our nominee. He gets my vote. I am not voting for Hillary or Bernie or Biden or whoever ends up being the nominee, pure and simple.

The Democrat Party is the most destructive force, the American left the most destructive force in this country today. These people I was with at dinner, I asked them all these questions. You know what I got back about Trump? They’re excited. They are fascinated. And they’re big Republican donors. They’re excited. They think it will be fun to see what a genuine outsider, somebody not a professional politician would do. Everybody’s fed up with the way the establishment’s running this country, both parties. Anyway, I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m out of time, Terry. Thanks for the call.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So The Hill went out, contacted 13 of the people that signed the letter, and they heard back from 11 of them. “Support among the group appears to be shifting to Cruz, especially now that the Texas senator has won endorsements from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). ‘Donald Trump is not a Republican. … He is a caricature of classless wealth.'” Folks, remember my lecture on old money versus new money? How the old money… This is really classic. Old money is not earned. Old money, your great, great granddaddy earned it decades ago, and there’s so much of it you can’t go through it.


All you do is start sipping cocktails at 4:30 and then you go to the club, and you resent anybody who earns their wealth by working, because the working class, no matter what else, is beneath you. So when this guy says Donald Trump “is a caricature of classless wealth,” his wealth doesn’t count. He’s a classless, coarse rube. He’s not in our league. “He is a caricature of the ugly American,” this guy said. This guy, by the way, Bryan McGrath, is “the deputy director at the Center for American Seapower at the Hudson Institute who is now working with the Cruz campaign.”

Now, look, “deputy director at the Center for American Seapower.” What do you think they do there? Look, the Hudson Institute’s got some good people. I have to be very, very careful. But I’m just… My point is, let’s say this Bryan McGrath is 10 years old and he’s over at family Christmas. “Hey, Little Bryan! What do you want to do when you grow up?” (Kid voice) “You know what I want to do? I want to be in charge of American Seapower! I want to run the Center for American Seapower!” Nobody would ever think, nobody would ever aspire to this. But, what do you do there?

It’s a think tank, so there you go and you think about American Seapower. But after you’ve thought about it, what do you do? (interruption) Well, you write what you thought. (interruption) You write. (sigh) Yes. I have a lot of little helpers here, folks, trying to coach me in the IFB here as to what I should say next. Official Program Observer, Mr. Snerdley. No, you do. You write about it. No, you have contact with policymakers. At the center for American Seapower, you have an entree, you know, to Admiral Whozit in the E-Ring at the Pentagon.

You may have an in with him, and so you’ve thought about “American seapower.” And there’s NOCIRC, the National Organization Circumcision Information Resource Center. That’s in San Francisco. I mean, who would ever grow up wanting to head up that organization? Somebody happily is doing it — and I guarantee you, they really think they’re important. Same thing here. They say, “All the palatable choices are gone.” But the next page is where this really closes out, and I’ll get to that after another obscene profit time-out.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Anyway, folks, the guy who runs the Center for American Seapower, at the end of this story in TheHill.com, says, “[O]n foreign and defense policy, I at least trust Hillary’s judgment.” He’s not voting for Trump. He will vote for Hillary for… Benghazi? The Clinton Foundation? The Crime Family Foundation? Here’s the bite from the Republican establishment openly, proudly states that he trusts Hillary Clinton on foreign policy. Why? She’s in the club! Whatever you want to call it, establishment, the elites, ruling class, I don’t care. But they are hanging together here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: There’s some polling data here. You know, Wisconsin, we read earlier this week in a New York Times story — that’s what it was — it was a New York Times story about how the Republican establishment was gonna start their 100-day strategy designed to take the nomination away from Trump. And it was gonna start on April 5th, the Wisconsin primary.

Well, there’s an Emerson poll out, just out. “As establishment Republicans look for ways to slow Donald TrumpÂ’s relentless march toward the partyÂ’s presidential nomination, WisconsinÂ’s winner-take-all GOP primary contest on April 5 offers some intriguing possibilities. In a statewide Emerson College poll released today, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is not only leading Trump 36% to 35% in the upcoming primary, but Cruz is only trailing Hillary Clinton by one point in a hypothetical general election matchup, 46% to 45%. In contrast, Trump is trailing both Clinton and her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, by the same 9-point margin of 47% to 38% in a potential general election match-up.

“In the Democratic primary, Clinton leads Sanders by 6 points, 50% to 44%, with 5% undecided. WisconsinÂ’s demographics bode well for Sanders.” It doesn’t matter. Bernie Sanders was never going to get — not to say they’re not worried. I mean, he is generating interest, he’s raising money. There isn’t any excitement out there on the left. The biggest thing that Hillary’s got going for her is what they’ve always had: A capital D next to her name on the ballot. I mean, based on the Electoral College, don’t they start out with 206 electoral votes or somewhere in there. Monumental task every year, but some people think that Trump could redraw these maps.

Before we get back to the phones, here’s another Trump sound bite. You let anybody else say this, and they’re done. You let anybody else even allude to this, and they’re gonna grab the little yellow bus and send the guys in the white coats to pick ’em up and take ’em away. Last night on Bloomberg TV, All Due Respect is the name of the show, John Heilemann is interviewing Trump. He said, “You would rule in the possibility of using nuclear weapons against ISIS?”

TRUMP: I’ve never gonna rule anything out. At a minimum, I want them to think maybe we would use it, okay? We need unpredictability. ISIS is a enemy. When you ask a question like that, it’s a very sad thing to have on answer it, because the enemy is watching and I have a very good chance of winning and I frankly don’t want the enemy to know how I’m thinking. But with that being said, I don’t rule out anything.

RUSH: Now, to me, it makes perfect sense. You build the B-2 bomber so you don’t have to use it. You know, the left never understood that. “What do you mean, you build the B-2? You build the B-2 bomber ’cause you’re a bunch of imperialists and you want to bomb people.” No, no. You build it so you never have to use it. “What does that even mean?” Deterrent. Do you understand deterrents? You have this giant military, you hope you never have to use it. It’s so big, nobody wants to take it on. It equals peace. And that’s what Trump is talking about.

“I’m not gonna take it off the table. I want ’em to think I could nuke ’em.” But just the idea, just the suggestion, I guarantee you there are people out there that we would need to pick them up off the floor with this. Let’s say Crazy Bernie started talking about the possibility of using nukes, can you imagine what would happen to him? I mean, Debbie “Blabbermouth” Schultz would get to him before Hillary even did.

Peter, Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Great to have you. Hello.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing?

RUSH: Fine and dandy. Thank you much.

CALLER: Okay. If Donald Trump is the nominee, the establishment won’t even have to run a third-party candidate because it’s going to happen naturally or spontaneously. Let me explain. As we all know on every presidential ballot in addition to the Democrat and Republican nominees, there are a whole host of faceless names or what I call ghost candidates who never have a prayer, yet this time around they will be ripe for the choosing of any member of the never-Trump movement, who will probably just follow Romney’s lead and vote for any one of those candidates, which will have the same effect as a third-party. You know?


RUSH: Whether there’s an official third party or not, you think there’s gonna be enough ghost names on ballots for people to effectively vote for one? So you believe that will elect Hillary, is what you’re saying?

CALLER: Yeah. It’s gonna have the same effect. Romney think he’s gonna vote for anyone else, or he’ll write in a candidate. You know? So it doesn’t matter.

RUSH: Okay. So what are you saying?

CALLER: — third-party effect.

RUSH: What are you saying? Trump should quit? What are you saying?

CALLER: I’m scared. I am really scared. You just cited the poll, that Trump’s down by nine. I’ve seen polls that Trump is —

RUSH: Okay, so you are scared that no matter what the bumbling idiots in the establishment do, that the third-party option is gonna be there and it’s gonna result in Hillary being elected?

CALLER: You know, last week Krauthammer was saying, you know, oh, the war is over, and the anti-establishment has won. No. What is happening now is not just the fracturing within the Republican Party, but a fracturing within the conservative movement. If we didn’t have a divided enough country or a divided enough party, now we’re being split into fourths, eighths, and 16ths. And each one is raging against the other. As a result, Rush, the establishment couldn’t have asked for a nicer Easter or even Christmas present if they had wrapped it themselves.

RUSH: Okay. I get it now. Because of all this fracturing, because of all of the division, because the conservative movement is not unified, because the Republican Party isn’t unified, the establishment by default is going to be the winner because they’re gonna be there to pick up all the pieces because one of them, Hillary or whoever’s gonna end up winning this thing.


You know, there’s so many unknowns here. And I told you, the people I had dinner with last night, I mean, they are rabid Republicans. These are donors. These are fundraisers. These are people that have been associated with the official Republican Party, the establishment wing of that party all of their lives, and they’re fascinated by Trump. And I kept digging, I kept asking, I didn’t accept any answer without asking another question. And I finally got to it.

To them it’s entertainment at this stage. They don’t want Hillary, these people, any part of Hillary. Anybody is preferable to Hillary, and this Trump business is so unique, they’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, it’s the first outsider, and they are steadfast that Trump is an outsider, and they’re convinced this holds potential like they’re never seen. They realize there’s a downside to it, too, but still the excitement aspect of it. The prospect of actually electing somebody that is not of the political profession, they said, holds great fascination for them.

I think that’s understandable. If you look at our pop-culture-dominated society that makes heroes out of celebrities, and celebrities can become celebrities without having accomplished anything. It can make sense. Not that it’s wise, but it can make sense.

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